Harpswell Foundation Advisory Board
Click on each name for a short profile.
Kamal Ahmad
Kamal Ahmad currently serves as the President and CEO of the Asian University for Women Support Foundation (AUW). Educated at Phillips Exeter Academy, Harvard College, and University of Michigan Law School, Mr. Ahmad has combined a career in private transactional law practice and international development. Prior to joining AUW, he was on the staff of the General Counsel of the Asian Development Bank in Manila, Philippines. He has worked with the World Bank, the Rockefeller Foundation and UNICEF. In 1998, Mr. Ahmad helped launch the World Bank/UNESCO Task Force on Higher Education and Society.
Jonathan Auerbach
Jonathan Auerbach is the Chief Strategy & Growth Officer and Executive Vice President at PayPal, Inc. and PayPal Holdings, Inc. He has spent more than half of his career living and working in Asia. Prior to joining PayPal, he served as the Chief Executive Officer of Singtel’s Group Digital Life, where he was responsible for a global portfolio of mobile video, digital advertising and analytics businesses. Before Singtel, he spent 26 years as a Management Consultant with McKinsey & Company. At McKinsey, he held a variety of executive roles in Asia and North America during his tenure with the Firm, including leading the Asian Telecommunications, Media and Technology Practice; the Singapore Office and the Southeast Asia Region and the North American High Tech Practice. He serves on the International Board of Directors of Technoserve (a non-profit organization focused on developing and implementing business solutions to reduce Poverty) and on the Board of Trustees of the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Mr. Auerbach graduated from Dartmouth College and holds a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford University, UK, where he was a Keasbey Scholar.
Robert Barnes
Robert Barnes is a civil trial lawyer. Through his Oklahoma City-based firm, Barnes and Lewis, Robert specializes in complex civil litigation and has acted as lead counsel in some of the nation’s largest oil and gas cases. He is a nationally recognized expert in pursuing cleanup of oilfield pollution, royalty owner class action lawsuits as well as complex geological and engineering litigation.
Cara Barnes
Cara Barnes Cara Smith Barnes graduated from Randolph-Macon Woman’s College before launching a career in marketing and public relations. She has a passion for nonprofits, volunteering extensively in her community as well as exploring an interest in empowering women in developing countries. Before joining Harpswell, Cara created and supported a marketing effort promoting the work of more than 2000 Bolivia artisans.
Elizabeth Becker
Elizabeth Becker began her career as a war correspondent for the Washington Post covering Cambodia. She was one of two American journalists allowed by the Khmer Rouge to enter Cambodia during the Pol Pot regime. Her book When the War was Over (1986) is one of the most insightful histories of modern Cambodia.
Holly Cratsley
Holly Cratsley founded Nashawtuc Architects in 1988, a community oriented architectural firm located in Concord Massachusetts. She has been cited by readers of Women’s Business Boston as one of the region’s “Top Ten Female Architects.” Holly’s civic activities include five years as an elected Commissioner of the Concord Housing Authority, Chair of various municipal Task Forces and Mentor in the School/Business Partnership. Holly assisted in the design of the Harpswell Foundation’s Dormitory and Leadership Center at Teuk Thla and supports the empowerment of women.
Roland Eng
Roland Eng is former Cambodian Ambassador to the United States (1999 – 2004) and is now Ambassador-at-Large and Advisor to the Royal Government of Cambodia. After the civil war with the Khmer Rouge, Ambassador Eng volunteered at the refugee camps along the Cambodian-Thai border. He worked with the UN to bring about peace in Cambodia, under the UNTAC operation and, in 1993, was elected to the National Assembly. Before becoming Ambassador to the United States, he was Ambassador to Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore.
Stephanie Fowler
Brad Gordon
Brad Gordon is founder of Edenbridge Asia, based in Phnom Penh, which advises capital markets and private equity transactions. He graduated from Harvard Law School. Before founding Gordon Associates, he worked for the international law firms Linklaters, Freshfields, and Shearman & Sterling and has many years of experience working as a corporate lawyer for international investors and investment banks in Asia. He worked with Cambodian refugees in Thailand in 1989. Brad is an advisor to Cambodia Living Arts and is also a member of the American Chamber of Commerce. His firm has given internships and other job opportunities to a number of Harpswell students.
Marco Greenberg
Marco Greenberg holds degrees from UCLA and Columbia University, and is an adjunct professor at Fordham Graduate Business School. A public relations expert and web video innovator, he has held senior positions in two of the largest global public relations and advertising firms, Burson-Marsteller and BBDO, and in his own ventures, NYPR, Reel Biography, and Thunder11. He is currently managing director of Burson-Marsteller.
Annie Halvorsen
Madeleine Jacobs
Madeleine Jacobs is the new president of the Council of Scientific Society Presidents. Prior to that, she was Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society. She has a background in both chemistry and journalism. Before her current position at ACS, Jacobs was Editor-in-Chief of Chemical & Engineering News magazine. She has held a number of senior management positions in scientific and educational institutions. Most notably, she was director of Public Affairs at the Smithsonian Institution, 1987 – 1993. She has been committed to achieving gender equality in science.
Irving Levin
Irving Levin is the Chairman and CEO of Genesis. A veteran of retail financial services, Mr. Levin founded Renaissance Holdings, Inc., and was the Chairman of Renaissance and its Orchard Bank subsidiary. Mr. Levin also works with a number of nonprofit organizations. He is Chairman of the Board of Digital Divide Data, which employs young people in Cambodia to provide IT data services to global clients, and also serves as a Trustee or Board Member for the St. Vincent Hospital Foundation, The Children’s Institute, Oregon Entrepreneurial Forum, and the Portland State University Foundation. Mr. Levin has a B.A. and an MBA from the University of Chicago.
Renay Loper
Passionate about the value of global citizenship and building partnerships to improve our communities, J. Renay Loper has dedicated her life toward facilitating change and doing sustainable work with lasting impact. To achieve this, Ms. Loper has leveraged the power of partnerships, global education, social responsibility, and intentional philanthropy to empower individuals to leverage their unique skills and abilities to strengthen their own communities.
Ms. Loper was born and raised in West Chester, PA where she attended West Chester University of PA and earned her Bachelors of Science degree in Business Management with an emphasis on International Business, and her Masters of Science Degree in Higher Education/Post-Secondary Counseling. Uniting her degrees and extensive involvement in community and church organizations (e.g. creating mentoring programs, participating in INROADS, a leadership development program, and more), along with her thirst to explore the world, Ms. Loper moved to a rural village in Japan and taught English in a Japanese high school.
Since living and teaching in Japan, Ms. Loper has traveled to 25 countries, including living and working in Greece; has written for numerous publications on the power of international exposure and education; has edited a sourcebook for student affairs professionals on creating inclusive climates for international students; has served as a keynote for various global conferences; has served on global boards; and is in the beginning stages of creating a not for profit organization, that seeks to take under-resourced students abroad.
Ms. Loper has held various leadership positions at TD Bank (formerly Commerce Bank), Pfizer, Inc., Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southeastern PA, Northeastern University, the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership, and currently PYXERA Global. Standing on her personal motivations, Ms. Loper has made it one of her professional missions to bridge the public, private and sectors and develop solutions to complex social challenges through the lens of innovation and business materiality.
Currently, Ms. Loper is the Vice President of Program Innovation at PYXERA Global. Here, she leads a team of 30 employees; partners with C-Suite leadership of Fortune 500 Companies such as Levi Strauss & Co., Moody’s, Dow Chemical, Medtronic, Inc., Pfizer, Inc., SAP, and more, to drive strategy on leveraging core business to provide solutions for social challenges while generating a return for the business; partners with organizations and networks around the world (e.g. US Chamber of Commerce in Ghana) to enable change through multi-stakeholder engagement; and leads the innovation on programs and initiatives for systems change through enterprise and community development.
Ms. Loper has been selected by the BMW Foundation to join its Responsible Leaders Network which is reserved for leaders who, beyond their professional and personal duties, work towards positive social change – across communities, cultures, and countries, and see social and political challenges as an incentive to assume responsibility in a larger context, using their knowledge and skills, their networks, and their influence. Additionally, Ms. Loper sits on the Advisory Board of the Harpswell Foundation, which exists is to equip young women in Southeast Asia with leadership skills, education, and a supportive network; and she also serves on the Global Council of the Global Pro Bono Network which exists to promote knowledge sharing, mutual support and collaboration among pro bono providers from around the world.
In her spare time, Ms. Loper is active in the community, enjoys reading and photography, and has taken up a new hobby of painting.
Katja Nelson
Katja’s desire to create meaningful change on a large scale began after she studied abroad in the North East of Thailand during college where she focused on issues of globalization and development. There she wrote human rights reports, worked with the Thai Network of People Living with HIV & AIDs, and spent 5 months living in rural villages. After graduating from Occidental in 2010, Katja first worked for Causes, a philanthropy application for Facebook, advising nonprofits on their social media fundraising. After Causes she spent four years at Twitter building out a new arm of their business in the mobile app space. Katja most recently took a year off to travel around the world with specific learning objectives. During this year, Katja spent time in the dorms at Harpswell teaching the women a course on social media. She is currently living in San Francisco and eyeing her next opportunity.
Daniel Pritzker
Daniel Pritzker graduated from Tufts University and has a law degree from Northwestern University. He was the founder, guitarist, and songwriter for the Chicago band Sonia Dada and is now making films. Daniel and his wife Karen are trustees of the Jay Pritzker Foundation, which has endowed scholarships for underprivileged minority students at Tufts University and has recently built a school, the Jay Pritzker Academy, in Ta Chet, Cambodia.
Karen Pritzker
Karen Pritzker is the daughter of a Foreign Service officer and has lived in Martinique, Liberia, Hatiti, Jordan, Switzerland, and France. Karen graduated from the University of Chicago, after two years at Tufts University. Ms. Pritzker has developed and supported Providence St. Mel, an innovative K-12 preparatory school for disadvantaged students in Chicago. With her husband Daniel, she is a trustee of the Jay Pritzker Foundation.
Jordan Sachs
Jordan Sachs was the senior executive of manufacturers of science education materials. His last position was publisher of educational software for Encyclopedia Britannica. Capping his career he published the first multi-media CD-ROM encyclopedia which won the software publishers association’s Oscar equivalent in every category it was eligible.
Retiring early so he and his late wife could pursue their enthusiasm for travel, spending several months overseas every year with a focus on Asia. Jordan & his wife Jeannie derive immense satisfaction from their commitment to Harpswell. Their annual visits with the Harpswell women provide living proof of the life changing results of Harpswell’s efforts. Harpswell Foundation converges Jordan and Jeannie’s passions for education and Asia.
Jeannie Sachs
As the mother of two bright and curious daughters, Jeannie Sack is especially dedicated to seeing the advancement of women’s opportunities through education. Over the past few years, Ms. Sack has made many visits to the Harpswell Foundation and believes the organization is offering young women a chance that would be otherwise unavailable to them.
Marissa Wesely
Marissa Wesely is the Chief Executive Officer of Win-Win Strategies, a non-profit social enterprise that connects the power of business with the deep assets of women’s organizations to empower women globally. Marissa has served as an Advisor to the “Path to Empowerment” series hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Corporate Citizenship Center, and was a 2014 Fellow at Harvard’s Advanced Leadership Initiative and a Global Fellow at the Wilson Center, affiliated with the Center’s Global Women’s Leadership Initiative. Marissa is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Board of Directors of Global Fund for Women. Prior to 2014, Marissa was a partner in the global law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP and was regularly recognized as a leading lawyer in banking and finance. As a long-standing advocate for women in diverse settings, Marissa has received many awards, including the ABA’s 2014 Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award. Marissa received her B.A. from Williams College, magna cum laude, and her J.D. from Harvard Law School, cum laude.